The Study On China’s Technological Catch-up Based On Capability Building

To catch up with the development country is one of the important goals of economic development of Later-comers. Technological catch-up is the key to realize economic catch-up for developing countries under the background of economic globalization, and innovation capability is precondition for technological catch-up. This dissertation studies issues concerning China’s technological catch-up from capability building perspective, and it makes efforts in the following contents:In the theoretical aspects, this dissertation reviews the current study situation at both home and abroad. And it builds up technological catch-up based on capability building theoretical frames:theoretically summarizes the concepts of technological catch-up, technological surpassing, capability and capability structure, their types and their relationships; establishes a model to analyze the impact of a capability structure on technological catch-up in later-development countries; stage of technological catch-up based on capability structure is divided into three stages; proposes the switch of technological catch-up stages and development paths hypothesis.In the empirical and case study aspects, this paper reviews on the experience of technological surpassing, technological catch-up and capability structure Change in the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, studies the effects of capability structure on technological catch-up in Japan and South Korea, and summarizes the beneficial revelations for China. Secondly, measures the effects of capability structure on technological catch-up combining with experience analysis of technological catch-up and capability structure in China since 1949. Thirdly, designs an index of capability promoting technological catch-up to evaluate China’s technological catch-up capability. Finally, through case study of China’s high-speed railway industries, the paper shows that the specific mechanism of action of capability structure upgrade which promotes technological catch-up.The analysis shows:capability structure is the foundation of technological catch-up. To catch up with the advanced, it’s necessary for later-development countries to accumulate enough technological capability, and technological catch-up is in fact a capability structure upgrade issue. Whether accumulating continuously technological capability or not is the key problem of technological catch-up. Capability building should be one of important national policies in China. The later-development countries have phasic and dynamic characteristics in capability structure development and technological catch-up. The technological capability structure has shown a trendency from imitation capability to R&D capability, and then to independent innovation capability. The development, movements and stage of technological catch-up are determined by capability structure. Capability structure should be standards of dividing technological catch-up stages. When path dependence of old catch-up route will cause difficulties to catch-up change stage in the process of technological catch-up of later-development countries, capability accumulation and structure upgrade can help them to carry out the catch-up state change smoothly.Some typical cases of later-development counties pay attention to build related technological capability all the time in the different stages of economic development. And at the same time, they promote upgrading of capability structure and the switch of technological catch-up stages. Among the above counties, the U.S. experienced the periods of the stage of technological catch-up which dominated by the imitation capability, technological catch-up which dominated by the R&D capability, and technological surpassing which dominated by the independent innovation capability. The U.S. had already entered the leading-innovation stage based upon original-dominant capability structure as early as in the beginning of the 20th century. The technological imitation capability and R&D capability of Japan and South Korea developed rapidly and successfully attained a catch-up with the leading counties after World War Ⅱ, and simultancity the independent innovation capability gained a moderate development. At present, Japan and South Korea are in the imitation-innovation stage based upon R&D-dominant capability structure. There is technological gap between them and the U.S., who still stay at the stage of technological catch-up processing at the same time.The technological imitation capability of China developed rapidly and successfully attained a catch-up with the leading counties after the founding of NewChina, especially since the reform and opening up, and simultancity the R&D capability and independent innovation capability gained a moderate development, while there is still a quite large technological gap between China and the leading counties. Therefore, it will take some time for China to realize this catch-up goal. The empirical results show that China is in the imitation stage based upon imitation-dominant capability structure either in the whole country or in the East and Midwest regions at present. The R&D capability is the weakest and independent innovation capability is weak in the technological capability structure. The eastern region possesses the conditions to transfer the imitation to imitation-innovation and conducting partial catch-up, while the central and western regions will remain in the period of imitation in the medium and long-term. Meanwhile, their independent innovation capability are relatively weak.In recent years, the technology of some enterprises in some industries develops from quantitative change to qualitative change, and among these industries, such as telecommunication equipment industries, UHV power transmission industries and large passenger aircraft industries have already completed the process of change from imitation to imitation-innovation. Meantime a small number of industries, such as household electric appliances industries and high-speed railway industries have probably entered the independent innovation and partial catch-up stage. Moreover, evaluation results show there are some weak indicators and fragility parts in the index of capability promoting technological catch-up, which is the future critical capability to build.The case study of capability structure upgrade and technological catch-up of China’s high-speed railway industries indicate that technological capability is the decisive factor to realize exchange of market for technology and to break the vicious circle of "introduce, lagging, introduce again, lagging further behind." The pathway of industrial technological capability in open economics shoud be "imitation capability, imitation-innovation capability, independent innovation capability" and promote technological catch-up. The technological catch-up of large-scale complex project shoud be placed under government guidance.In the solution aspects, this dissertation puts forward some feasible paths to promote upgrading of capability structure and technological catch-up in China:in the short term, China should walk out of the "imitation trap"; in the medium-and-long-term, China must avoid or get rid of "imitation innovation path dependence", to transform the imitation innovation -oriented technological catch-up to independent innovation-oriented technological catch-up; it discusses and tries to set the target the switch of capability structure and technological catch-up stages.In order to accelerate the progress of China’s technological catch-up or technological surpassing, it is necessary to take three measures to provide support of policies: advances imitation capability and strengthens the imported technology absorption; speeds up R&D capability development and promotes imitation innovation; protects and supports independent innovation capability development to lay the foundation for technological surpassing.